This One Sure Thing: My Ausclimate Dehumidifier

For me, there are so many areas of life that are shrouded in doubt: when will I recover? When I go out, am I going to get chronically ill from exposure to fragrance chemicals? Is today a day where I will continue to feel good, or will an unexpected chemical exposure knock me flat, possibly for days? Can I create/build a safe place to live? How do I go about creating a healthy place to sleep when most mattresses and furnishings keep making me sick?

(Yes, another mattress post coming up 🙁 )

But there’s this one sure thing that has improved my living space, my sleeping practice, my health and quality of life. And, besides practising chemical avoidance, and the new glutathione nasal spray that I’m trialling along with the Pullaria mould drops that (amazingly and blissfully) help with symptoms during rainy weather, there’s not a lot of things that have helped me in my recovery so far.

Except for this one sure thing that just keeps on putting out for me…

my dehumidifier from Ausclimate!

I bought my machine back in 2013 when I moved from the mouldy house to this beach house rental. In 2014 my health became worse, and now, in 2015, compared to those previous years, my health has improved (obviously not enough to escape this housebound existence, yet!), but through all this I’ve had my trusty dehumidifier to assist through rainy, damp weather. My chest and sinuses hurt terribly when it rains, so it’s important I can remove moisture from the air. And I can tell you: I sure breathe a lot easier!

After asking around my Australian MCS community, I decided on Ausclimate because I found out that Allan, one of the guys who runs this business, used to do water damage restorations after the Brisbane floods, and he has a tonne of knowledge on mould prevention and remediation. Also, this company sells a lot of them up north where moulds are more prevalent and the weather varies from dry, to humid, to very humid, and I figured: if these machines can cope with so much intense moisture, then this just might be what I am looking for. And I was right. (There is one other brand that I know of that other people with MCS have used in Australia, and that’s Delhongi, but there were two things that put me off: 1 being a strong plastic odour when new (at best, a sure sign of having a petrochemical exposure; at worst, a sure sign that I could become sensitised to plastics in the future); and 2, the styrofoam float that they have inside of them (although, I’ve heard of others solving this problem by covering it in foil). So really, my search started based on the desire for something that could do the job on a heavy-duty level and didn’t emit plastic fumes when running.

I’m really happy the product I bought met these needs.

The model that I have is the NWT Large Home model, which can dry a whole 50 square metre area in around three days, taking out a whopping 35 litres of moisture from the air or furnishings. It can dry out mattresses, carpets (for those who have them), and even dry the washing. (If a room is larger than 50 square metres then it would take one of the larger models to dry it.) It has a handy timer, and an electronic display that gives a reading of the relative humidity levels of the room, and it kindly switches itself off when it’s full. It takes six litres of water before I need to empty it, which I then tip into a watering can that I keep outside my front door so I can water my bonsais later on.

When I first bought my Ausclimate dehumidifier, I ran it for ages because the bucket just kept filling up, so I kept it running until it was no longer drawing water from the air. It took nearly a week. However, nowadays, I rarely run it for longer than 10-12 hours at a time. If it hurts to breathe I always put it on, which is nearly always during and after rainy weather.

Also great:

• If it’s smoky outside, I run it in the bathroom when showering, instead of running the exhaust fan, which lets the woodsmoke in, making me sick. This way my bathroom cannot grow mould because I’ve robbed it of a damp, humid environment. (It’s really nice having a mould-free bathroom because, so long as the air is clean outside my house, I can use my bath to relax! And, until I lived in this house, I’ve not been able to do this for a few years now.) (I try to run my exhaust fan for 20 – 40 minutes after I shower but if I can’t, it’s comforting to know that the room won’t become mouldy.)
• When there was an accident with the fridge accidentally defrosting while leaking water over the layers of foil covering our kitchen floor, we sprung into action, ripping up the foil and running it to dry the pine floor underneath. Within 24 hours. we were able to lay fresh layers back over the floor to stop in outgassing into my living spaces.
• I’ve not had any condensation on my windows during winter since I’ve had this baby because I set the dehumidifier’s timer to run for a few hours in the mornings. This definitely reduced my exposure to moulds this last winter.
• I use it to dry clothes in my bathroom when the air is polluted outside.
• I have military control over the humidity level in my home. I try for a humidity level of 45 or at least under 50. And as soon as it gets to 55, the humidifier goes on.

Draw Backs

• The removable water chamber has corners that are difficult to clean; if left with water sitting in it for too long, there’s a build up of algae, (kind of like in a fish tank). I’ve solved this issue by using a toilet brush to give it a good scrub and don’t leave water sitting in there when not in use.
• Ausclimate Dehumidifier cannot be used to dry the dog in time before she climbs on the furniture or my bed. I still have to use a towel and hairdryer for my pooch 🙂 (But it does help immensely with wet doggy odour.)
• It would be great if the Ausclimate Dehumidifier and the InovAir Purifier (or Austin Air Purifier—I have both machines) could be rolled into the one machine; that way I, and others could save on electricity. But this is not going to happen because dehumidifiers draw in water from the air and purifiers draw in dust and VOCS. Now, what do  we get if we confine dust and moisture in a small dark area? We get a petri dish for mould! Ew!
• It doesn’t work in the outdoors… Look, I’m just being silly now because I can’t find any other faults.

Aftersales Service

Because Ausclimate offer after sales service, and they want their customers to be happy, I was thrilled to receive a follow up call in regards to how my machine was working for me and my health condition. During my conversation with Allan, I took the chance to make some more enquires about mould control in buildings; and here’s what I found out:

Dust mite cannot grow if the relative humidity is kept below 50%

Vacuuming keeps mould and dust down

It’s important to have the right size machine for the correct size room

Dust mite and mould spores can have a pretty intense relationship and multiply quickly given high relative humidity levels, so it’s even more important for people with allergies or illnesses that are impacted by dust and mould to keep a tight reign on room humidity levels. If you can tolerate using a vacuum, giving the place a quick vacuum regularly is a great way to minimise mould too; less dust equals less food for mould to attach itself to. (I can no longer do the vacuuming, and, if the weather is not good enough to stay outside, I have to stay in the bathroom for a couple of hours while my boyfriend does the vacuuming because it takes a while for the air to clear. We seal the door shut with masking tape while I’m in there, while the rest of the house is wide open with two fans and one InovaAir purifier are left running for that time period.) We have a Dyson *Allergy* vacuum, but I would never recommend that product for anyone who actually has allergies. It blows out air that makes me sick for days; it reeks of dog hair, mould and dust. And, yes, we’ve tried washing the filter. It’s possible that this machine has mould in it from the other house. But if so, what’s the point of having a washable filter if you can’t wash mould out of it?)

It’s not nice being so ill each day that after a while ‘being ill’ is a sure thing; but it’s great to finally be experiencing periods of good health. And it’s even better now that I have my dehumidifier. Thanks Ausclimate!

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